Cristiane
“Cyborg” Justino
has punched in these GPS coordinates once
before.
The reigning
Bellator
MMA women’s featherweight champion will defend her crown
against
Arlene
Blencowe when their rematch headlines
Bellator 279 on Saturday at the Neil S. Blaisdell Center in
Honolulu. Justino submitted the Australian with a rear-naked choke
in the second round of their first encounter some 18 months ago.
“Cyborg” enters the cage on the strength of a five-fight winning
streak. She last appeared at Bellator 271, where she punched out
Sinead
Kavanagh just 92 seconds into their Nov. 12 encounter.
Blencowe, meanwhile, has recorded back-to-back victories over
Dayana
Silva and Pam Sorensen. She has compiled an 8-4 mark across two
tours in Bellator.
As Justino and Blencowe make final preparations for their
five-round sequel, a look at some of the numbers that have
accompanied them to this point:
36: Years of age for Justino, who was born in Curitiba, Brazil, on
July 9, 1985.
20: Justino victories by knockout or technical knockout, accounting
for 80% of her career total (25). Her list of victims includes
Leslie
Smith (twice),
Marloes
Coenen (twice),
Julia Budd,
Tonya
Evinger and
Gina Carano.
Justino holds one other victory by submission and four more by
decision.
11: First-round finishes on the Justino resume, including two of
the sub-minute variety. She buried
Charmaine
Tweet with punches in 46 seconds at Invicta Fighting
Championships 11 on Feb. 27, 2015 and cut down
Faith McMah
with a knee to the body and follow-up punches in 45 seconds at
Invicta Fighting Championships 13 on July 9, 2015.
58: Rounds started by Justino as a professional mixed martial
artist. She has gone the distance on four different occasions and
carries a perfect 4-0 mark in those bouts.
.774: Cumulative winning percentage between the two women—
Amanda
Nunes and
Erica
Paes—who have defeated Justino. They boast a combined record of
24-7.
39: years of age for Blencowe, who was born on April 11, 1983 in
Manly, Australia.
8: Blencowe wins by knockout or technical knockout, accounting for
53% of her career total (15).
Amanda Bell,
Amber
Leibrock and
Janay
Harding are among those she has victimized. Blencowe owns one
other win by submission—she took care of
Kenani
Mangakahia with a triangle choke at a FightWorld Cup show in
2014—and six more by decision.
22: Seconds needed for Blencowe to punch out Bell at Bellator 224
on July 12, 2019. Having occurred nearly three years ago, it
remains her quickest stoppage to date.
9: Consecutive calendar years in which Blencowe has fought at least
once. She went 3-4 in 2013, 2-0 in 2014, 2-1 in 2015, 0-1 in 2016,
3-1 in 2017, 1-0 in 2018, 2-0 in 2019, 0-1 in 2020 and 2-0 in
2021.
93: Combined victories between the seven women—Budd (twice),
Justino, Coenen, McMah,
Kate Da
Silva,
Jessica-Rose
Clark and
Kyra
Purcell—who have beaten Blencowe. They sport a cumulative .762
winning percentage (93-29).